Michael van Gerwen, Raymond van Barneveld and Kim Huybrechts will be sponsoring a series of young Dutch and Belgian players aiming to earn their spots in the Junior European Championships, in a special qualifying event held in June.

The 2016 Junior Darts Corporation season will feature the £6,000 Junior European Championship, which is being held from September 16-18 at Pontins, Brean Sands. Four places for this competition will be on offer at the special qualifying event at the Evenementenhal in Venray, on Saturday 11th June.

There will be two spots open for Dutch players and two spots available for Belgian players, in addition to a £5,000 prize fund. Two promising Dutch talents, Justin van Tergouw and Maikel Verberk, have both accepted invitations to compete in the Junior European Championships.

Van Tergouw won the World-Youth Masters last year, whilst he also tasted success on home soil, winning the Finder Darts Masters in December. Van Tergouw, who turns 16 today, also tasted victory at last weekend’s German Open, securing victory with a magnificent 147 finish.

Verberk also possesses an equally impressive resume, having tasted victory at the Denmark Masters, Dutch Open, Hal Open, Swiss Open and the Europe Cup Youth, where he represented the Netherlands alongside van Tergouw.

The six players competing in the Junior European Championships will be sponsored by the trio of; world number one Michael van Gerwen, five-time world champion Raymond van Barneveld and Belgium’s number one Kim Huybrechts. The three stars will be covering the travel expenses of all the young prospects as they compete in a career-defining event.

Van Gerwen said: “This is a great opportunity for young players and it’s fantastic that we can help the winners to play in the Junior European Championship. The JDC are doing really good work for youth darts and schemes like this are important for the future of darts.”

In addition, this event is also being supported by former UK Open champion Roland Scholten and World-Cup winner Co Stompe, who will both be in attendance on June 11th. The Dutch duo of Vincent van der Voort and Jelle Klaasen have also given their backing to this project, along with Kim’s older brother Ronny Huybrechts.

Further entry information can be found on www.pdc.tv/news or www.juniordarts.com. Best of luck to all of the youngsters participating, and credit to Van Gerwen, Van Barneveld and Huybrechts, for their support to the game’s most exciting young talents.